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Lively Lymphatics

March 25, 2010 in Personal Health by bursty | 5 comments

I guess as a process of desludging during our newly found and much loved awesome practice of macrobiotics, I’ve been down with an absolutely awful spring cold the past few days.  All of the phlegm (luckily no picture on that wikipedia link), coughing, sneezing, headache, nastiness of it has made me really appreciate all the work my lymphatic system does for me on a daily (hourly) basis.  As I research more and more into the intricacies of the human body, I just never cease to be amazed at how it all works together to keep us healthy!  **Pause for a moment of gratitude — REALLY! — to your body and ALL of it’s organs with their individual jobs to do - for doing such a great job!**

So — the lymphatic system:  responsible for removing and replenishing fluids from the joints and tissues throughout the body, transports fatty acids and fats to the circulatory system, and transports immune cells to and from the lymph nodes.  The average human body has 600-700 lymph nodes.  These nodes cleanse your blood.  Blood pumps from your heart through your arteries to capillaries (a little biology 101 here!).  The blood carries nutrients and oxygen to the capillaries, from which the cells take what they need and then excrete toxins, some of which go back into the capillaries.  Dead cells, blood proteins, and other toxic material is removed by the lymphatic system — then the lymph (a pale fluid that is mostly water, of which you have much more than blood) passes through lymph nodes, where toxins and dead cells are destroyed and neutralized. 

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Love your Liver!

March 18, 2010 in Personal Health, Vegetables by bursty | 1 comment

As we move forward into spring, the energy feels alive and fresh for detoxification.  By detox I mean:  in our lives clearing out blocked energy, in our homes clearing out dust and clutter and unneeded items, and in our bodies, clearing out sludge.  Nomatter how long we’ve been practicing macrobiotics, it feels good to spend some time intentionally detoxifying.  I’m not talking about a brown rice fast (although those are good) or a cabbage soup diet (that sounds gross)… but more of a wholistic approach to detoxification including intentional use of detoxing/alkalizing foods and meditation.

The more I read up on self-healing and healthy lifestyle, the more astonished I am by the power of our own bodies to heal themselves and maintain health if given the tools it needs to do so.  One of the most important components of this healing is meditation.  I find that an excellent time for meditation comes during shavasana, at the end of an invigorating yoga practice, when you can be extremely present with your body and your chi/life energy/prana.  But, this is for another post. 

Today I want to talk about your liver!  It’s the largest glandular organ present in your body — it breaks down the fats consumed in food, and produces certain amino acids for tissue generation.  The liver is also the organ that eliminates toxins from the blood - it’s like your blood going through a good car wash when it travels through your liver, as it squeezes out all the toxins and bad stuff that we ingest and inhale throughout our days (even when we try not to have many toxins in our daily life, they get in).  So — as you can imagine, your liver is mighty important.  It’s a pretty amazing organ - the majority of it is located under the lower part of your right ribs, and this guy (or gal) is much larger than one imagines!  This is also the only human organ capable of natural regeneration of lost tissue!

So, how can we love our liver and keep it healthy and ready to process out the toxins that we ingest/have stored in our bodies?  Bitter vegetables are said to be some of the best foods for a healthy liver.  Chicory and dandelion enhance bile flow (produced by the liver), and bile helps eliminate toxins from the body.  Other good liver foods include artichokes, garlic, turmeric, beetroot, and limejuice.  Some good veggies to stimulate the production of enzymes that will help the liver:  cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale and brussel sprouts (hmmm, i see a green theme here).  So give your liver some love today!

Transform your experience of food!

February 16, 2010 in Personal Health by bursty | 6 comments

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One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in eating macrobiotically are the mental hurdles — the “I couldn’t possibly”s and the “you can’t even eat [insert food that you sometimes like to enjoy but isn't an integral part of your daily meals]!!???”s.  Whenever we talk to people about our dietary choices (although we’ve really stopped talking to lots of people about it because sometimes it gets sickening talking about it and explaining it all the time), we get lots of questions and statements like this.  What I’m here to say is that you really do get used to it, and eating clean healthy macrobiotic food becomes what your body craves.  I’m not kidding! Read the rest of this entry »

Twisty Detox

February 11, 2010 in Personal Health by bursty | 2 comments

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My most favorite and welcome postures during my yoga practice are the twisty ones.  I absolutely adore the release that happens when I get all tangled up and twisted around and then set myself ‘right’ again.  It’s like an explosion of energy happens in my chakras!  My various yoga guides have given me hints throughout my yoga journey about where these feelings come from – release of toxins, massaging the digestive organs, constricting fluid and then letting it release at once through your body…

Well, my intuition on twists turns out to be right — it is SO good for you to twist up and then release!  Why, you might ask?  Twisting intentionally produces physiological benefits to the circulatory system and internal organs, structural benefits to the musculoskeletal system, and focusing benefits to your consciousness, according to this Yoga Journal Article (this article also includes some descriptions of great twisting postures for you to try).  The organs are compressed during the twist, which pushes out blood filled with metabolic products and toxins.  When we release, fresh blood invigorates the organs with oxygen and needed tissue-healing ingredients.  Read the rest of this entry »

Road Trip Post Mortem: A Toast to 2009

January 10, 2009 in Reviews by Nicole Gurgel, B.A. | No comments

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We’re back! As of 3:30 AM this past Monday our monster road trip officially ended when we arrived in Austin. Including Andy’s trip from Virginia to Texas, we spent almost 25 days on the road, drove 5,000 miles and were filled to the eyeballs with more non-macro delicacies than I care to remember. Between the steak lunch that Andy’s parents held to send us off and the eggs florentine(s) that I couldn’t resist at numerous brunch dates (they are my personal breakfast weakness) and the ever-present, shape-shifting sucrose that met us at all stops on the trip – we were full up on non-macro foods and ready for some serious cleansing.

The first thing I notice each time I fall off or get back on the wagon (so to speak) is the intensity with which my body reacts.  Eating non-macro foods after a long stretch of sticking to macrobiotics brings about stomachaches, grogginess and a general thick, sludgy feeling. Moving from a non-macro habits to more consistent macro fare, usually gives me a two-day long headache and non-stop cravings for all the foods that were making me feel lousy the week before.
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The Female Macro: Sludgey Reproduction

November 4, 2008 in Female Macro, Personal Health by bursty | 4 comments

I did a post a while back about infections and experimenting with hip baths. Since that time I’ve done some more research and oh-my-goodness the amazing effects that these baths can have on a woman’s health. I’m planning to invest in a hip bath tub eventually - and I just purchased my first bunches of dried daikon leaves online. We went to the co-op in hopes that they would have some leaves in the back for me to dry myself, but no luck — the woman at the co-op said that they restock daikon root so rarely that she hadn’t ever done it, and wasn’t even sure if they came with their leaves on! Goodness! I guess I may have to wait until I have my own garden to dry my own daikon leaves…

As it turns out, daikon leaves have amazing healing properties for females! A hip bath like the one that I posted (from Kristina Turner’s book - but also found throughout macrobiotic literature) helps a woman’s reproductive system to discharge excess fat and built up sludge. As Jessica Porter pointed out in the Hip Chick’s Guide to Macrobiotics, female reproductive organs store a lot of sludge. When we “go macro,” we have the ability to discharge a lot of our sludge through our period and other vaginal discharge. The daikon bath helps this along.

It’s funny to think of my uterus, ovaries, and other reproductive parts holding a lot of the baked flour, saturated fats, and other sludge that I have ingested over the years. Hip baths have been used to get rid of ovarian and uterine cysts, to regulate periods, to help with uterine cancer, to treat urinary tract infections and yeast infections, to alleviate the symptoms of menopause, to help with the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, and to generally cleanse the body of excess fat, mucous, and fatty deposits like cysts.

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Farm Fresh: Burger Lust - Lean into it!

October 20, 2008 in Farm Fresh by Andrew Lee | 3 comments

I’m in the middle of directing a show right now (Iphigenia 2.0 by Charles Mee - you can read the script here if you’d like a glimpse into other aspects of my life) and my life is crazy. I eat on the run EVERY DAY. A lot of times I miss meals or I forget to pack a lunch and then end up heading down town to eat out.

I’ve got one vegetarian restaurant nearby that serves macro meals and there are other veggie friendly hotspots along the way BUT when I’m at my busiest, I am the least clear-headed about where and what I eat. My tendency is to PANIC and buy/eat the closest thing to me. Since I live in a college town, I am SURROUNDED by non-nutritious food that looks and smells amazing (and it’s a part of a fast food culture that I was raised in!).

This is how I’ve survived:
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HalfroMacro: SLUDGE

October 3, 2008 in Personal Health by BearofGold | 3 comments

It’s been a week of re-balancing at A Grain A Day. Everybody’s talkin’ about it.

Last week my busy and unintentional eating patterns hit me like a semi-truck, as my friend “Priscilla” came to visit. I experienced unbearable aching all through my legs, back and abdomen; like never before. I took the unpleasant opportunity to connect to my compromised physical health.

I have revisited that sensation of pain many times this week, and it is so clear in my mind that I haven’t been able to carry-out a halfro-macro lifestyle. I absolutely had to go “whole-hog” macro as JP would put it. Last week, all of that aching and feeling of the angry hormones and chemicals coursing through my innards, I started thinking about SLUDGE.

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STRESSED OUT: Mantra Contest for Free Jessica Porter Book!

September 30, 2008 in Grains, News by bursty | 7 comments

Sorry if that title startled you a bit. And — please do bear with us on the sporatic posting as of late. Jake and I have had a lot of life change going on over the past month. We embarked on a cross-country move at the end of August from Rhode Island to our beloved Twin Cities. The road trip was complete with broken down vehicles, unexpected hotel stays, and plenty of sludgey food. It took about 3 days longer than we had planned to make it back to Minnesota, minus one vehicle and plus an expensive U-Haul charge on the credit card. I began interviewing for new jobs while also planning our wedding. We got married on September 20th in an absolutely pristine setting — but again, not a macrobiotic experience.

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